Friday, April 14, 2006

Kosovo Albanians win rare praise on minority rights

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, April 14 (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians won rare praise on Friday for reaching out to the province's Serbs, a key demand of the West as it answers an Albanian bid for independence from Serbia in talks in Vienna.

Frank Wisner, the U.S. envoy in the negotiations, welcomed efforts by President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku to improve the lives of the remaining 100,000 Serbs, a ghettoised minority.

"Your authorities have undertaken important steps to build a spirit of national confidence, national reconciliation, making it clear that all the citizens of Kosovo have a home here," he told reporters.

Western powers have indicated independence for Kosovo's 2 million people could come this year, provided the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority offers the Serbs a viable future. Following a period of stagnation and international criticism at the turn of the year, the U.N. mission says Kosovo's new leadership has revived efforts to meet a raft of democratic standards set by the West. The mission has been running Kosovo since the 1998-99 war.

Serbia lost control of its southern province in 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas, the culmination of a decade of Serb repression.

Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks. Those who stayed lead a grim existence on the margins of society and were targetted by sporadic, sometimes explosive, violence.

After seven years of U.N.-imposed limbo, and growing Albanian frustration, Western powers say they want a decision on Kosovo's "final status" within the year.

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who heads the U.N. team mediating the Kosovo talks in Vienna, said he wants to wrap up discussion of technical issues such as minority rights and church protection by July. He will then report to the U.N. Security Council before addressing the crunch issue of status.

Serbs and Kosovo Albaninas will meet again in Vienna on May 4 to continue talks on how to strengthen local self-government in Serb areas.

Serbia insists independence for its southern province -- the so-called cradle of Serbdom stretching back 1,000 years -- is unthinkable.

one day they are lauded for their sudden 'move on minority rights' and the next; told they won't have their own state until they clean up their corruption.

If that is the case, there will never be an independent albanian muslim dominated Kosovo.

Corrupt Kosovo cannot be independent stateApr. 14, 2006 at 8:54AM A U.N. mediator says Serbia's southern Kosovo province has to eliminate corruption before it gains independence. Albert Rohan, U.N. negotiator in ongoing talks between Serbs and ethnic Albanians, said: "Corruption endangers the independence of Kosovo," Albanian-language media in Kosovo's major town of Pristina reported Friday. "There will be no independence unless corruption is contained. We do not want a state which has shortcomings from the very beginning," the Beta news agency quoted Rohan as saying. Kosovo Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the province's population, want independence from Belgrade while Kosovo Serbs want self-government for the Serb-inhabited enclaves. Formally, Kosovo with a population of 2 million is part of Serbia but it has been under the U.N. administration since 1999 when NATO forces drove out Serbian troops after grave rights abuses. The current talks should decide who will govern Kosovo once the U.N. mission and NATO leave the province.

". . . there will never be an independent albanian muslim dominated Kosovo."

You obviously dont' live here son because the independent muslim dominated Kosovo is already here booooiiiiiiiiiiiiii. It's small but proud and getting stronger. Damn double headed eagles everywhere ready to tear shit up in case you know who comes back.

I am an Albanian and I do not hate Serbs, but I have the feeling they do hate us. Why this anger? Why this yearning for revenge? Why cannot the Serbs just live in peace with their neighbours instead of making war with everybody (Slowenians, Croatians, Bosnians, and Albanians)? Whats wrong with them?